Test and Queensland warhorse Petero Civoniceva is resigned to the likelihood that Darren Lockyer will pull the pin on his representative career.

Kangaroos skipper Lockyer is almost certain to announce he is quitting international and State of Origin football on Tuesday and his long-time comrade says those sides are ready to move on without the 50-Test, 30-Origin great.

"We can all say what we want about Locky," Civoniceva said after his Penrith side's 34-30 NRL victory over Newcastle on Monday.

"As a mate of his it's just been an honour being out there with him and he's had an amazing career in the Queensland and Australian jerseys, but I'm not going to put any pressure on him.

"I think it's wrong for anyone to do that. It's his call at the end of the day.

"He doesn't owe anybody anything so whatever he does we've just got to move on from it.

"Obviously it's a huge loss but we've got some pretty good guys there waiting in the wings ready to go."

Civoniceva, 33, is also nearer to the end than the beginning of his career.

He said Lockyer's decision, though, would have no bearing on his own 40-Test, 25-Origin career.

Meanwhile, it was a Civoniceva spray moments before half-time which rallied the Panthers to their second victory of 2010 after trailing the Knights 24-6 at the break.

"They were already frazzled by the time they got to me so they got a double spray," coach Matt Elliott said.

Civoniceva rated his dressing down as "up there" among his best.

"There was some colourful language there," he said.

"I just said we needed to be prepared to fight."

He said the Panthers' character was on the turnaround after league great Peter Sterling had labelled them mentally weak following the defeat to North Queensland two weeks ago.

"We've gone a long way towards that maybe but there's still a hell of a lot of improvement," he said.

"Our first half was an issue.

"We've got it within the team, it's a matter of finding it.

"We don't want to be behind on the scoreboard like that in the first half to be able to find it."

The injury-hit Panthers expect to have Test backrower Trent Waterhouse back from a quad injury for next Sunday's clash with the Sydney Roosters.

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